In his father’s side, we find mainly English, Scottish and Dutch ancestors from American protestant high class society. Rufus has ancestors in common with President Obama and President Bush. Maybe this is the explanation of his good side and his evil one :-)In his mother’s side (McGarrigle), we find mainly Irish and French Canadian ancestors from Canadian catholic middle class society. He has common ancestors with Madonna and (obviously?) with me (with a red dot ).

Daddy #1 would like to offer everyone a digital cigar and welcome the little lady in with a French phrase from his favorite folk song, A La Claire Fontaine : « Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, jamais je ne t’oublierai. »

Lyon Cohen was a businessman and a philanthropist. He was a co-founder of the Canadian Jewish Times, the first anglo-Jewish periodical in Canada; treasurer of the Montreal Reform Club; former President of Jewish Colonization Association in Canada, Baron de Hirsch Institute, Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, Canadian Jewish Congress 1919, Montreal Va’ad Ha’ir; organized Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada. Source.

Rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline wrote a book called Otzar Taamei Hazal (New York 1939) which was a compilation of the various interpretations to biblical verses found in Talmudic literature, arranged according to the order of the Torah, with his own notes.

Rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline was known as « Sar HaDikduki », the Prince of Grammarians. And he wrote a thesaurus of Talmudic interpretation and a dictionary of synonyms and homonyms. They were used in institutions of higher learning until Israel took over the grammatical institution.

People travelled long distances to hear him speak. He was the principal of a yeshiva in Kovno, a disciple of Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan and, in fact closed his teacher’s eyes when his teacher died.

He had a very strong secular side to him. He rode, for instance. He liked to ride horses. He was a kind of confrontational teacher, especially when he got to New York, where he ended up. He came first to Atlanta, where his daughter married into the Alexander family of Georgia, who were Jews who arrived in 1708, and he originally moved to Atlanta.

But there was nothing there for him in Atlanta, so he moved to New York and he became part of the Forward and that group of Yiddish writers although didn’t contribute to any of the newspapers. But he kept on with his grammatical and Talmudic studies.- Source.

November 21, 1950. Burial services for Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Cohen, dean of the Canadian rabbinate and president of the Montreal Council of Orthodox Rabbis who died on Friday at the age of 90, took place here yesterday. A native of Lithuania, Rabbi Cohen dame to Canada in 1889 and was one of the first organizers of the Canadian Jewish Congress. He opened the first session of the C.J.C. in 1919 with a benediction.

Rabbi Cohen also played a leading role in the organization of what is now the United Talmud Torahs of Montreal. In World War I he formed the Central War Relief Committee, which aided many war victims both in Europe and Palestine. In the early 1920′s he instituted this city’s Kashruth-control system. He also founded and presided over the Jewish Arbitration Court here for many years. Source 1 – Source 2.